During their meeting in Albuquerque on Friday, April 27, 2018, the Western New Mexico University Board of Regents voted to grant New Mexico Lt. Governor John Sanchez an Honorary Doctorate degree at this spring’s commencement ceremony. They also unanimously approved the 2018-2019 Budget, the Final Budget Adjustment Request and the Quarter 3 Financial Actions Report and revised both the 2018-19 Tuition document and the Capital Projects Transmittal for Underground Utilities that were presented at the last meeting.
Regent Chair Jerry Walz and Student Regent Arlean Murillo were joined by regents Janice Baca-Argabright, Dan Salzwedel and Carl Foster at Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town, while others phoned in from campus in Silver City.
When the regents voted to give Lt. Governor Sanchez an honorary doctorate degree, Western New Mexico University President Dr. Joseph Shepard said, “This degree is equally an honor for Western as it is for him.”
Shepard described instances when Lt. Governor Sanchez has advocated for the university, saying, “He has been instrumental in seeing that students at Western New Mexico University have resources.”
The Regent Budget & Finance Committee discussed the 2018-2019 Budget for more than five hours prior to Friday’s meeting, Committee Chair Dr. Foster said. “We looked at five areas of concern and vetted those five areas and made our recommendations to the president.”
Vice President for Business Affairs Kelley Riddle said Western New Mexico University’s budgeted ending balance for Instruction and General is about $1.7 million. “We’ve projected for that to be closer to $2 million by end of fiscal year,” she said.
Moving to the next action item, Riddle explained that approving the Revised 2018-19 Tuition would be only a matter of updating the records. “You voted not to increase tuition, but the document that was presented [at the last meeting] showed a slight increase. This vote is just to correct the document,” she told the regents. “Our tuition budget matches or is slightly lower than what we budgeted for Fiscal Year ’18. There is actually a slight increase if you compare it to what we actually brought in during Fiscal Year ’18.”
Presenting the current fiscal year’s Final Budget Adjustment Request, Riddle said, “There are not any significant increases or decreases. This shows where we estimate we’ll end for Fiscal Year ’18.”
In response to a question from the regents, Riddle said most of the university’s spending has already been cut off for the rest of the fiscal year. “This is done so we can better understand where our balance will be at the end of the year.”
Western New Mexico University’s Quarter 3 Financial Actions Report demonstrates that the university’s revenues and expenses are on track with the projections, Riddle said.
Although the regents voted to start moving campus utilities underground at the last meeting, the Higher Education Department asked the university to consider that undertaking and a separate construction project on Bowden Hall as one, making the Bowden Hall project also subject to approval from both the board of regents and the Higher Education Department. “Those two projects combined total $715,247,” Riddle said.
The Western New Mexico University Board of Regents will meet next on campus on Thursday, May 10, 2018.